In the following text the expression "scratch card" refers to a preprinted card or ticket used, for example, as a game of chance as in an instant lottery ticket. Typically, the scratch card is purchased at a retail location for play. Play involves scratching off a removable, opaque substance from the surface of the card to reveal preprinted information concealed by the removable substance. The removable substance, such as latex, and the preprinted information are aligned on one or more locations on the card. The alignment of the one or more locations define an area on the card referred to as a game play area. The configuration of the game play area is dictated by the type of game played. The possible outcome of a game, i.e. a win or a loss, is dependent on the type of game played and the preprinted information revealed by scratching off the latex.
Currently, there are two types of instant lottery games. In the first type of game, the possible outcome of the game is determined at the time the scratch card is printed. That is, a fixed percentage of winning and losing cards are produced. The fixed percentage is assigned by the sponsor of the game. In the second type of game, referred to as probability games, a pattern of play dictates whether the card is a winner or a loser. In probability games, each card has been preprinted with a winning pattern. Winning play involves scratching off the latex of one or more locations within the game play area to reveal the winning pattern. Removing the latex from a location other than a location within the winning pattern typically results in a losing card.
It can be appreciated that for both types of games it is desirable to prevent tampering with the scratch card to determine if the card is a winner, i.e. has an intrinsic value beyond the purchase price of the card. Such tampering could involve carefully lifting the latex layer in one or more locations to observe the underlying indicia, or attempting to "see through" the latex to view the indica.
For probability games, an important validation step includes determining which locations within the game play area have been played, i.e. scratched off. The determination of played locations includes ensuring that the latex from locations not played remains intact. That is, ensuring that the latex covering locations which appear to have not been played were not, in fact, partially removed. The partial removal of latex without playing the location may be an attempt to determine whether the location is within the winning pattern. This attempt to compromise the latex layer without detection is not permissible.
There are many known ways in which the latex layers may be compromised including, for example, applying solvents to the scratch card in order to bleed the preprinted information through the scratch card, microscopic viewing of the latex in an attempt to reveal the concealed preprinted information, or various techniques which remove portions of the latex in order to read what is below it and which then replace the removed latex without detection.
In the current state of the art, numerous techniques have been employed for authenticating an item and for encoding an item to indicate a specific status. In the lottery ticket art, the determination of authenticity and play status is made by some validation system. Prior art validation systems include a manual inspection of the card wherein a retailer visually inspects the card and/or scans a bar code on the card into a lottery terminal. The retailer may also read a numeric "key" from the card which may originally have been under latex, and then enters the key into the lottery terminal. The lottery terminal and/or system to which it is connected decodes the bar code and key to determine whether the card is authentic, and for authentic cards, whether a prize should be awarded.
One disadvantage of the current validation process is the extent of manual intervention in the process, and the resulting significant time that is required to perform the validation process. Thus, there is a need for a less time-consuming, keyless validation method wherein validation is performed without the retailer entering information at the lottery terminal. Additionally, the conventional methods and apparatus are seen to generally provide authentication and marking systems. However, the prior art is not seen to teach, for example, the detection of played lottery cards. Thus, there remains a need for a reliable validation system which detects played instant lottery tickets and which limits manual intervention.